An Account of an Exorcism
by Simple-Minded Idiot
Summary: Naruto wants to save people and Sasuke wants to see himself. And then, somehow, two people with the different goals manage to meet each other. NaruSasuNaru


Ta-da!

This one's for **Lisea18**. (A bit late on my side as it isn't the twenty-fifth here anymore.) I hope that you like it whenever you do happen to see it.

* * *

"Just like our very own savior."

That is how a lot of people will comment when they learn of Naruto's noble deeds.

The great Uzumaki Naruto. Handsome, rich, witty. Kind and caring. Loves everyone and is loved by all. He is perfect now.

Back then, they all have thought horribly of him. Uzumaki Naruto. A scoundrel, a disgrace, a troublemaker. Snot-nosed and selfish. Causes bad luck for everyone.

When he turned twenty, he inherited everything his supposed father was.

That's when he came to assume the place of the great Uzumaki Naruto. The Naruto that is somebody.

Naruto has always dreamed of being able to help people despite the rough treatment he has received from most. He's just that selfless.

Perhaps not. Selfless, that is.

* * *

"An exquisite and expensive sculpture. That's what he looks like."

Sasuke is nothing more than his facade.

Underestimated is his strength, insignificant is his mind, unneeded are his feelings. Sasuke is pretty, is elegant, is poised, is the embodiment of art. He is nothing more than those. He lives to look good for others. He lives to be a model, he lives to be a muse, he lives to be inspiration. For others.

Sasuke shan't feel anything real that he will show to others. It is unacceptable. It is unthinkable. It is impossible.

* * *

"It's for charity," Naruto said with a big grin on his face. "All of the profit that we'll be getting from these paintings will go to various orphanages and public hospitals. It'll also be going to that big feeding project the folks at Warner's are working on."

Cameras clicked. The media were having a field day.

Naruto smiled some more before he returned to his room in the hotel. After locking his door, he immediately plopped down on his bed. It had been quite the day.

He looked at the painting he'd acquired from the whole project. He had been told to pick the painting he liked the most. It was the people's way of saying thanks for all his hard work.

A lot of people had said that if he wanted the paintings to be sold at high prices and immediately, it would be best if he got Uchiha Sasuke as the model for the paintings. He did so, seeing as he really wanted this project to work. He wasn't at all let down by the action. The paintings had immediately all been bought as if they cost just as cheap as oranges.

The painting that he was looking at was the best. Rich hues spread across the canvas. Graceful arcs made shapes come alive. It was almost magical the way the painting came together. What made it more amazing was the beauty of the model on it.

Naruto hadn't the chance to thank Sasuke for a "job well done." But if the latter turned out to be just as beautiful as his portrait...

"Casual dating, huh?" Naruto asked himself.

He would just have to see Uchiha Sasuke in person.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke, as always, was punctual. He was also looking good as always. He wore a dark-blue turtleneck with a somewhat long black cardigan, black slacks, and black shoes. He was wearing fine clothing. After all, he was meeting – it was a date, actually – with an influential person.

An influential person that was three minutes and nine seconds late already.

Sasuke propped up his elbow on the table, and then placed his head on the hand that was connected to said elbow. His legs were crossed. He stirred his drink with a coffee spoon.

He had come to assume that Uzumaki Naruto, being the head of dozens of corporations and such, would be early on everything. It seemed as if he had overestimated Uzumaki's abilities a bit far too much. Though the man should've had the gall to arrive early. After all, he had been the one to invite Sasuke out for breakfast via his and Sasuke's secretaries.

Naruto – Sasuke knew what the man looked like through TV appearances and other forms of media – had come to arrive around ten minutes after the appointed time. He had burst inside the small cafe, looking rather rushed.

What he wore burned Sasuke's eyes to an extent. A black blazer with an orange shirt inside, blue – not even of the dark variety – jeans, and orange sneakers. Sasuke could also see a crystal necklace on the tan-colored neck. The man was a walking fashion disaster. At least that would be what Itachi would comment.

Sasuke would say the same thing, too. Except the only difference would be he'd find it rather... endearing. He'd always found such _fashions_ to be cute.

Naruto half-jogged to where Sasuke was and, panting, said, "I'm really sorry for being late! I'd overslept for a bit. When I woke up, I didn't notice that I only had five minutes left till nine and I hope that you'll forgive me and stuff."

"It's alright," Sasuke said.

It would always be alright. It wouldn't be good if he ended up blowing a casket in front of a very important person. His managers would have his head, even if Itachi would somehow manage to cover the whole incident up.

"That's great!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin on his face.

He sat down opposite Sasuke.

"But, still, I'd like to make it up to you," Naruto said. "What'd you like to eat?"

Sasuke glanced at the menu, then back at Naruto.

"Whatever you wish, I suppose," Sasuke said. "I'm not partial to any of the foods here."

Sasuke wasn't partial to anything at all. He wasn't given such liberties.

"You should try their chocolate frap and their strawberry cheesecake or that German-something-cake," Naruto excitedly said. "They're really nice!"

Sasuke didn't like sweets, but he didn't dare say that out.

"You're a food connoisseur," he stated.

"I'd like to think that I was!" Naruto said with a laugh at the end. "I just find myself assessing food whenever I taste them. I think I got it from this friend of mine who's a chef. You should know him, Chouji. Akimichi Chouji."

"I've ate in the restaurant that he works in before."

"The food was the best wasn't it?"

"It was really nice."

"Come now, Sasuke-san, don't be gloomy! I know that me being late and all might've put you out, but don't give it any importance. I'm almost always late!"

Sasuke rose an eyebrow.

Naruto sheepishly chuckled.

"I know," he said, "isn't it just odd to hear someone like me saying that? But it's true."

"You have turned out to be quite the exception to everything," Sasuke said.

His eyes widened for a fraction.

Naruto blinked.

"I'm very sorry," Sasuke said. "I didn't at all–"

"What're you saying sorry for?" Naruto asked. "You haven't even done anything except talk!"

Sasuke stared at Naruto before he looked at his drink and began to stir it again.

"I'll take your word on the food then, Uzumaki-san," he said.

He was rather lucky that Uzumaki Naruto didn't at all seem to be the brightest light bulb in the country as others had supposed him to. After all, to have risen that quickly in the business world, he had to have had some smarts, street or school.

Naruto ordered for the both of them and after that, silence descended on them.

Naruto thought that it all felt quite awkward.

Sasuke didn't think any of it at all. To him, it seemed quite normal to be quiet.

"So then... how are you today, Sasuke-san?" Naruto asked, trying to break the silence.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking," Sasuke said. "How about you, Uzumaki-san?"

"I'm fine, too."

Just like that, Naruto was out of words to say yet again. Sasuke would be an amazing adversary at debate. He seemed to steal the words of the opposition.

This was something very odd for Naruto as he'd never run out of words to say before, even when faced with the most silent of companions. Perhaps it was Sasuke's utter neutrality to the whole matter – his expressionless face and his idle stirring of his drink, the manner he carried himself.

Naruto could also be very susceptible to his surroundings. He just didn't do it all that often.

Their orders arrived. Sasuke stared a bit at the strawberry cheesecake Naruto had ordered for him before he picked up a fork and took a small bite of it. He knew that there was a reason why he didn't like sweet stuff. Regardless, he continued to eat. He took small, measured bites each time. It would do no good if he appeared to be a boor.

Sasuke, after a couple more bites of the cake, tasted the frap. Thankfully, it was a wee bit more bitter than the cheesecake.

Naruto cheerfully ate his cake. Sasuke could get how one could be so happy from just eating cake. He supposed that Uzumaki Naruto really was an exception to everything.

"Wasn't it just great?" Naruto asked after he finished his cake – which would be around... five minutes or so since he started eating.

Sasuke, after he'd managed to swallow his food, nodded. He'd only eaten less than half of the cake.

Naruto smiled some more.

Sasuke wondered if Naruto was on drugs. He hadn't met anyone who smiled or grinned as much as the man did except for those who were on something powerful. Like Deidara.

Deidara was one of his brother's business partners. The blond – this had led Sasuke to hypothesize that perhaps blonds just were... smiley-smiley-energetic people as Deidara was also blond – had been diagnosed with some sort of mental illness and was currently taking medicine to suppress it.

"I'd like to know more about you, Sasuke-san," Naruto said, "so would it be alright if we met again?"

Sasuke thoughtfully looked at his cake. He looked through his mental calendar.

"I'm free Saturday next week," he said.

"How about lunch this time?" Naruto asked.

"It's alright."

"At the Pavilion then. It's that restaurant beside that De Lala hotel."

"Sure."

Sasuke knew the Pavilion. After all, it was just right beside the hotel he was currently residing in.

* * *

"You made him eat what?" Sakura, Naruto's PA, shrieked.

Naruto winced. What was up with Sakura today?

"I said that I ordered strawberry cheesecake and a frap for him," he said.

"Sasuke-san doesn't like sweet stuff!" Sakura said.

"But he said he was alright with it."

"That's because he's far too polite!"

Naruto groaned. His first date had been a disaster and he had been unaware of it.

Dating Uchiha Sasuke, he thought, should be considered an art. A science, even!

* * *

It was a dark, chilly night. December was fast approaching so it was only expected that they would have temperatures like those during night. Naruto liked eating ramen the most during these days. Whenever winter had come, he went to one and only one place to eat ramen.

In his opinion, Ichiraku Ramen served the best ramen around. He wouldn't at all mind that going there almost every single night was a large inconvenience on his part since his apartment was on the other side of their city. It was all worth it. Just for that tasty, tasty ramen.

"He's rescheduled the photo shoot for tomorrow? It's one in the afternoon? You should tell him that I can't come... Yes, I can't come at all. I've got an important meeting during then."

Naruto's ears twitched. His smile practically stretched from ear to ear.

He poked his head out of the cloth that divided the ramen stand from the street and looked at the outside surroundings. Sure enough, the voice had belonged to none other than Sasuke. How odd that they would meet each other in such a place. Naruto was now quite inclined to think that he truly was gifted with insanely large luck.

Only three days had passed since the disastrous, in Naruto's opinion, date, had occurred and he already had a chance to get into Sasuke's good graces.

Sasuke closed his phone and pocketed it. That was when Naruto decided to greet him with a loud, "Hey there Sasuke-san!"

Sasuke's gaze landed on him and he started to frantically wave at the other. Sasuke eventually reached him.

"Good evening, Uzumaki-san," Sasuke said.

"Fancy meeting you here, huh?" Naruto asked, chuckling at the end.

"Quite. What are you doing around here at this time of the night?"

"I'm eating, of course!"

Sasuke looked at the red cloth that served as the stand's entrance. It was bearing the words "Ichiraku Ramen Stand" in bold, white letters (or characters if you may).

"I had no idea that you liked ramen, Uzumaki-san," Sasuke said.

"Are you kidding? I _love_ ramen!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I think I see that."

"Would you want to come and join me?"

"No. I'm already running late for a meeting. I'm very sorry, Uzumaki-san. Perhaps some other time – that is, a time different from our meeting on Saturday."

"Sure thing then!" Naruto was all grins and smiles.

Uchiha Sasuke could've been the most unfriendly of all the people that he'd dated, but at least the guy would compromise for the time not spent. That was something new for him.

Because of a shallow reason or not, on that day, Uzumaki Naruto, whether he knew it or otherwise, started to like Uchiha Sasuke. A lot.

* * *

"And you know what he said?!"

It had been around a week since Naruto found out Sasuke's home and cell number. He called a lot. Around thrice each day. Which was a lot for Sasuke because he was a very busy person.

"What did he say, Uzumaki?" Sasuke asked.

It had also been around a week since Naruto finally persuaded Sasuke to ditch the honorific in "Uzumaki-san." So now, Naruto was simply "Uzumaki." Which, Naruto would say so himself, was quite the achievement since Sasuke seemed rather intent on keeping the distance between the two of them.

Sasuke re-crossed his legs. This time it was left over right. They had been talking for around half an hour now. Far too long for Sasuke. He was wondering how Naruto almost always managed to choose the times wherein he was idle to call.

"He goes off to say 'Oh, wait, Uzumaki-san, it seems as if we'll have to cancel the merger.' Can you believe that? We've been planning on this thing for months now – spending tons of money now and then, too – and then just one word from the guy and everything collapses!" Naruto wailed from the other side of the phone.

"You could sue him," Sasuke said.

He went to law school before.

He also heard a lot about Orochimaru, the man that had been supposed to merge with one of Naruto's companies. Personally, he thought that Naruto – lucky son of a gun – was much better off without the merger.

"But_how_?" Naruto asked. "He's got, like, a bajillion lawyers or something! And all of them came from top-notch schools and have yet to lose a case before!"

Which would explain why Orochimaru was still not in jail.

"I suggest that you merely keep quiet," Sasuke said.

"BUT I CAN'T!" Naruto said.

"Why don't I ask Itachi about this then?"

Itachi could do everything. Even make Orochimaru bow down to him.

"Hell no!" Naruto said.

He was a bit... terrified of Sasuke's brother. Itachi was intimidating like woah! Well, sure. Sasuke was intimidating, too, but not in the "I will kill you and rest assured that it'll be all covered up perfectly" way that Itachi was like. He was similar, in Naruto's mind, to some crime lord.

Naruto shuddered. Scary thoughts were a no-no.

"What would you want me to do then?" Sasuke asked.

"Listen to me!" Naruto said. "That's all I ask."

Sasuke was silent for a while before he said, "I'm hanging up. My phone bill's on the line, too."

"Don't do that! And you're loaded! I know that you don't care if you end up spending a million on your phone bill," Naruto said.

Sasuke suppressed the urge to sigh for the nth time that day. Naruto was really testing his patience. And facial muscles.

* * *

Sasuke had ended up spending Christmas with Naruto. It seemed as if the blond new that his brother wouldn't be there the whole day and that Naruto himself wouldn't be spending Christmas with anyone else.

Naruto was an orphan, after all, and his other loved ones were spending Christmas with the people they truly should be with.

Their main dish had been a leg of sweet, shiny ham. Littered on Naruto's dining table were casseroles, fruitcakes, mashed potatoes, and so and so. They'd drunk wine. They'd feasted, at the very least Naruto did, as if they were ten people instead of merely two.

"I'm full!" Naruto exclaimed after around an hour of pigging out.

He lightly patted his slightly bloated stomach before letting out a sigh of contentment.

He grinned at Sasuke.

"Thank you for dinner," Sasuke said.

"After two months of dating, you'd have thought that you'd lighten up around me," Naruto commented. He still retained his smile. "At least you're not addressing me as Uzumaki-san anymore!"

Sasuke was merely quiet.

Naruto frowned.

"Lighten up at least this once, Sasuke. It's Christmas for crying out loud!" he said.

Sasuke did not reply.

Naruto sighed this time. Then he brightened up.

"Hey, hey, what were the gifts you got for Christmas? Got one from Santa Claus?" he excitedly asked.

Sasuke rose an eyebrow.

"Santa Claus?" he asked.

Naruto vigorously nodded his head.

"The man isn't real," Sasuke stated. "He's a myth. He's loosely based on Saint Nicholas. He's made in order to get children all riled up for Christmas."

"Don't be like that!" Naruto said. "You're ruining Christmas just by saying that!"

"I would rather have the truth than be placated with lies."

"Still! It's Santa Claus! The holiday practically revolves around the guy."

"You're quite childish, Uzumaki."

"Surely you must've believed in Santa Claus back then. So you should, even for the smallest bit, understand the magic behind the guy."

Sasuke honestly looked honest. Then he looked at Naruto.

"I have never believed in this figure," he said.

He had believed in Santa before. It had been such a long time ago.

But he'd stopped believing in Santa and many more when his parents died.

"Ah, well," came Naruto's chipper voice, "I believed in Santa. Still do, to be more exact. There's just something that makes me want to_believe_ in his existence."

Naruto was a blind believer.

"I honestly don't know how you're able to live in the modern world with notions like those," Sasuke said.

"I just do and that's all there is to it!" Naruto said.

Sasuke let a small smile reside on his face for the most fleeting of moments.

* * *

"You should stop seeing him, Sasuke," Itachi said. "You seem to have gotten far too attached to him and those kinds of attachments never bade well."

Sasuke's words were caught in his throat.

Sasuke, to some extent, liked being with Naruto, as annoying as the other could be. Naruto had breathed a copious amount of life into his otherwise empty existence. Naruto made him feel human. Made him feel himself. For once in his life, Sasuke had gotten a peek at who he could really be.

But his brother... Itachi was everything to Sasuke.

The decision was known even before Itachi had spoken his words.

"Of course," Sasuke said. "If you say so, aniki."

"But do not get me wrong, Sasuke. I am grateful that you have managed to meet Uzumaki Naruto as he has managed to give you some passion which you have been able to integrate into your stance, but it is merely far too risky to have him around," Itachi said.

Itachi, too, was afraid for his brother's well-being even if he did not seem it. He merely did not know how to express his own emotions.

Sasuke was an extremist through and through.

"Would it be alright to meet with him one last time then?" he asked.

"One last time," Itachi said with a nod.

* * *

Naruto had taken out Sasuke for ramen, reasoning that the latter would have to get used to the _poorer_ kind of living, according to most. Not to mention, it would be worth the experience. It was Sasuke's first time at eating in such a place.

Ichiraku Ramen had a nice atmosphere. It made Sasuke feel comfortable. Well, perhaps not completely comfortable. After all, he did have to break the news to Naruto.

"I don't think," Sasuke said, "that you're good for my well-being."

Naruto stopped mid-slurp from his ramen. He looked at Sasuke with his eyebrows raised.

"These months that we've spent dating, Naruto," Sasuke said. "These months were precious to me. But I can't go on with this. We wouldn't end up anywhere."

"You're breaking up with me even before I could ask you to become my boyfriend," Naruto said.

"Yes."

"I understand."

Sasuke blinked for a bit, trying to assess what Naruto had said. Then he looked at Naruto.

Naruto was grinning as always.

"I understand. Completely," he said.

He payed for both of their food before he rose from his seat. He made his way out of the ramen stand.

"I understand that you'll still be going out with me!" Naruto said. "Tomorrow night at seven, at the lobby of the hotel you're staying in!"


End file.
